Bakuman Season 3 - 09
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When fanboys go wrong.....
It's no secret Jump has an inordinate number of die-hard fans. When I say die-hard, I mean those who go overboard and take things too far. Nanamine is their king. Inspired by a dark themed manga at a young age, he is no better than those walking around with Death Notes.
Representing the opposite of Ashirogi Muto, he's picking up steam and is on the fast track to the top. Doesn't help that editors like Aida and Miura or as I like to call them "jockriding moron #1 & #2" praise authors like him as a once in a decade genius. In many ways, Nanamine is a product of fandom gone wrong nurtured by the opportunist side of editorial departments.
Bakuman stood up for its editors this episode. Editors are people too, and like Kosugi want to be involved in the creation of literary successes. They are often forsaken, forgotten or altogether ignored just because they work in the background. Only a series like Bakuman, which looks at the entire workings of a major manga magazine can capture the criticisms which editors face.
Take me or you for example. If you're reading this post, you are looking for one guys opinion on this particular episode of Bakuman. The likelihood is that you frequent other blogs, post on forums and discuss it elsewhere (like me). Indirectly you may consider yourself an editor, because popular opinion is that all they do is critique. Now imagine someone who actually thinks they can do an editor's job better than he/she.
Not great is it Being told how to do your job is the last thing you want to hear. Unfortunately, there plenty of people who think they can do it better and it's because of this that newbie editors like Kosugi get put in a tight position. He was openly told about his inexperience hindering a promising rookie whilst being conflicted by the expectations of his seniors to nurture the next big thing.
Poor Kosugi now has to deal with the impending - it's obvious without knowledge of the manga - and Hiramaru with Yoshida's torture. The latter is too good to not witness, and then there's Nizuma's words of wisdom. We've seen him do this before: say something cryptic and then find out he was right all along. Nizuma guessed it once again.
Bakuman is thorough. As one would expect from a manga anime about a manga, it leaves out no process in the creation of manga. Bakuman's commentary also comes through in a subtle fashion to give the story more spice and make it more than just a story about how mangaka live.